


Noir

by steffilinos



Category: Arashi (Band), Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato De
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2199354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steffilinos/pseuds/steffilinos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Mr. Kageyama?” Her voice was shaky, almost breathless and she put all her effort into sounding both scared and seductive at the same time. Reiko kept her face deliberately hidden behind her wide-brimmed, floppy hat, allowing the man in the shadows only a glimpse at her delicate features and perfect make up.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Noir

**Author's Note:**

> There are two reasons I wrote this: One, there isn’t enough NazoDi fanfic out there! Two, I need to practice editing myself and **not** write one epos after the other :D 
> 
> [Kitkaos](http://archiveofourown.org/users/KitKaos) was nice enough to beta - but no native speaker of English had a look at this. You've been warned.

A slender figure was rushing through the rain, holding her purse protectively over her head – a shadow against the impending dark. Her hair was swaying with every move, dampening on her way even under the luxurious hat that spoke of money. Only a few more steps, until her delicate hands covered in long black gloves came to rest on the doorknob of her destination.

There was no turning back now.

It was already too late to just leave. What choice did she have anyway? She was in too deep already and so she turned the knob in her gloved hand to enter. The heavy rain was crackling against the foggy glass of the office’s arched windows. The clouds had hung low all day, washing away any and all colors to leave a gloomy fog.

The downpour muffled the noise coming from the busy street outside, doing its best to isolate the dark room from the rest of the world. A dusty lamp was sitting on an old wooden desk loaded with books, newspapers, half a bottle of whiskey next to a tumbler, and an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts. Serving as the only source of light, its dim bulb cast long shadows over the office’s confined space. Scantly furnished, most pieces had seen better days with the chairs’ padding coming off or the shelf stuffed with folders standing askew. Even the fedora dangling just above the soaked trench coat on the rocky hall tree by the door looked battered.

What the room lacked in furnishing and taste, it made up for in junk. Piles of books and newspapers alongside even more folders covered the better part of the office’s floors, a broken radio stood lost near the window collecting dust, and the bin was brimming with scrunched-up paper. Ripped articles had been pinned to the walls and connected to pictures, maps and scribbled notes with colored threads of wool.

The only sound to be heard – other than the pouring rain – was the steady clacking of the old typewriter – but it stopped the moment she stepped in. 

“Mr. Kageyama?” Her voice was shaky, almost breathless and she put all her effort into sounding both scared and seductive at the same time. Reiko kept her face deliberately hidden behind her wide-brimmed, floppy hat, allowing the man in the shadows only a glimpse at her delicate features and perfect make up.

“Depends on who’s asking.” Wishing his voice were huskier, even lower – more dangerous – she smiled coyly and slowly approached the table with swaying hips.

Tap, tap, tap – her high-heels echoed on the hardwood floors before she sat down on the impossible chair, crossing her legs in a very unladylike but surely sexy manner. “They told me that you’re the one to talk to when you need to get something… fixed?”

Expectantly, she looked up from under long lashes highlighted with expensive mascara and hoped that he’d finally reveal his face – but all she could hear was a soft chuckle from the shadows, his face still hidden in the dark.

“And who would say such a thing?” Amusement was audible when he answered after a short pause, but Reiko was willing to look past it. After all, there was something **she** wanted from **him**. 

He had positioned himself well, the uncharacteristically disheveled dress shirt clearly visible in the dim light but keeping everything above the impeccable bow tie hidden from her view.

“Friends.” Deliberately cutting the answer short, she went on to open her purse and revealed a file. Yet, she stopped – hesitant – before handing it over to the man on the other side of the desk. “So you **are** Kageyama?” Suspicious, she studied the shadows and waited, straightening invisible wrinkles on her figure-hugging red dress.

“Now, let’s just pretend I am…” Finally, he leaned forward and poured himself more whiskey into his tumbler but didn’t touch it. “What then?”

Intelligent, knowing eyes looked at her from behind glasses with an expression Reiko couldn’t quite read – it was as if they were looking right through her, already one step ahead, while she was still trying to get a grasp of his character. Clean-shaven and hair freshly cut, he seemed to be at odds with his chaotic office – although his ruffled clothes spoke another language. His full lips gave the illusion of a smirk as he accepted the file and skimmed through the collection of pictures in it.

It suddenly hit Reiko that he hadn’t even asked her name.

“I would tell you about this man who’s been following me around…” Keeping her voice calm, she waited for him to ask her for more details about the case, inquiring about the obvious connection of the pictures in his hands and the tiny piece of information she’d just revealed. At least, he could make a joke on how it didn’t come as a surprise that a stunning woman like herself had her fair share of followers – but she got none of it.

Instead, he just sat in his chair, the shadows from the window’s crossbar spilling over his calm face, and patiently waited for Reiko to go on in her tale. He was remarkably quiet for a private eye.

“So,” trying to **not** let her irritation show, she continued her tale “this man… whenever I turn around I see him in his bright white suit, grinning at me, leering. There’s only so much a lady can take, you know?” Sighing, Reiko opened her purse to take out a long, elegant cigarette holder. 

“It doesn’t matter where I go – the opera, dinner parties, charity events – he’ll always be there, haunting me with his impossible approaches he deems to be courtship. You see, I’m an important person whose presence is expected. Unfortunately, his family invests in the production of automobiles, which has opened him the doors to certain circles as well. Sadly, it didn’t equip him with the proper manners. He’s loud, obnoxious and imposing. The only thing that has kept him from haunting me at home is the fact that he knows me by another name – I’m sure you understand that this situation is far from ideal?”

Putting the pictures down on his desk and sighing, Kageyama still looked rather amused instead of intrigued, something Reiko absolutely needed to do something about. So, she leaned back slowly, uncrossing her legs and crossing them again the other way. “You don’t happen to have a smoke for a poor girl to calm her nerves?”

Her eyes followed him as he got up and walked around the desk, miraculously coming up with a lighter and silver cigarette case to offer her one. “I’m sorry to say, but isn’t this rather a case for the police? To address a private detective when the stalker’s identity is already known seems a little… **crude**.”

He ‘politely’ ignored the frown building on her forehead but lit Reiko’s cigarette with a perfectly innocent smile – impossible, just impossible!

“He’s working for the police so I don’t expect any help from that side,” she answered a little harsher than she would have liked to. “Besides, I don’t think that’s the proper way to treat a **lady**.” Shaking her head in disbelief at such impertinence, she inhaled deeply…

… and broke into a fit of coughing. Gosh, how could something looking so glamorous just taste so… **disgusting**? In an instant, Kageyama was by her side offering her a glass of water – wherever he might have gotten that from so quickly. Not the time to question her butler, definitely not the time. Greedily, she emptied the glass and even allowed him to pat her back. Reiko was well aware that the act rather had a psychological aspect than anything else, but she didn’t complain. She didn’t even have the **air** to complain right now, and her list was long.

“Would my lady like another glass of water or shall I get rid of the cigarette first, like I have advised from the very start, if I remember correctly?” Reiko could have strangled him for sounding so gleeful but she was still gasping for air and trying to get rid of the horrible taste on her tongue. She didn’t care about whatever Kageyama took her nod for as she was perfectly content to find the cigarette holder taken out of her hands and her glass refilled.

“I take it we will not continue with our little excursion into the Film Noir genre now that the ‘spell’ is broken?”

“Now… broken now?” Reiko wanted to lunge herself at him but decided it was wise to stop coughing first. She knew he hadn’t been too pleased with the whole idea of reenacting old film classics – probably due to the lack of Queen Q and his other weirdo manga characters, but it wasn’t up to him to decide how they spent boring Saturday evenings when there was no real murder mystery to be solved.

Once she felt there was enough air in her lungs again, she immediately pointed an accusing finger at her butler – not to fire him like she liked to do on occasion, but to give him some piece of her mind. “You broke it first long before I… you broke it first, period. What kind of a private eye are you when you don’t even ask for my name… or the stalker’s name? Or anything at all? And the bow-tie… no, you ruined it first!”

Oh, she knew that expression, knew what was coming even before Kageyama bent down. “Excuse me, but my lady must be stupid to think I could possibly feign any real interest and ask redundant questions when my lady has given me all the answers already?”

Reiko was torn between screaming and pouting, eventually settling on the latter. She knew she was in for one of Kageyama’s speeches that made him look like a genius and her like a complete fool – yet she was also well aware that her curiosity always won out in the end and she **needed** to know what this impossibly rude person intended to tell her.

“Oh, just say it already, tell me how clever you are. How could you possibly know mine and Kazamatsuri’s name – in this setting?“ Impatiently, she waved her hand and waited for the inevitable humiliation that was to come.

“Well, if my lady really needs to know – she might want to use an envelope that doesn’t have her address written on it when she hands over information. Also, it might be useful to take pictures when Kazamatsuri is not exchanging business cards – or wearing a name badge when one wishes to conceal his name.”

Reiko felt like strangling her butler when he reached over and handed her one of the pictures she had taken for this little experiment. For a split second, she was tempted to tell him that her boss wasn’t holding any cards, but then she spotted the man next to him with an expensive-looking one in his hands, staring in disbelief at Kazamatsuri who seemed to be laughing wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, there even was said badge, almost hidden behind her boss’ hands in his signature ‘hai, hai, hai’ move, but you could at least make out his last kanji. Of course, Kageyama would pick up on something like that and rub it in her face.

“So, it is your fault that this didn’t work out. You were the one who took the pictures after all.” Not ready to give up that easily, she stubbornly crossed her arms and pouted some more. Why, just why couldn’t she be the clever one **just once**? Reiko wasn’t stupid and she knew it. 

Actually, she should have played the private eye but that wouldn’t have given her the excuse to wear this perfect vintage-y dress she’d fallen in love with. And she hadn’t wanted to give Kageyama the chance of coming up with a puzzle she couldn’t solve just to give her one of his trademark I-can’t-believe-you-don’t-get-it-looks. Hadn’t that just worked out perfectly?

“I sincerely apologize if I have let my lady down.” He bowed, apologetic look on his face, but Reiko could see the amused sparkle in his eyes. Deciding it would be best to ignore that tiny detail, she just nodded and got up.

“I think I have enough of this dirty room. Who knows how many spiders are lurking around anyway… and I think I might like some **coffee** now.” She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of tea time. So she watched him drawing an umbrella from behind his desk and opening it for her protection. Feeling a little smug that this kept him in the pouring rain and thus ruined his perfectly trimmed hair, she stepped under it and made a mental note to take her time from the tool shed to the mansion. The fact that he had to get back out to get rid of all the clutter and junk before they could put back all the gardening tools (wherever he had put them for the time being) was just a bonus.

“Kageyama, let’s go.”


End file.
